On the night of
[Tuesday] April 18, 1775, another rider besides
Paul Revere left Boston with the famous message for Middlesex (a message,
incidentally, already received from other sources at Lexington.) William Dawes
started out at the same time as Paul, and for the same destination. Having
left his message at the Punch Bowl Inn, at Brookline Village, he rode on,
lickety-split, up the road to Cambridge. A bend in a none too straight road, a
bit of a brook, a farm grail leading to Sewall's Point—could he see that that
desolate bit of country would some day be a great centre of people and trade?
Probably not; but such was to be the case. With the building of the Mill Dam
in 1821, that trail to Sewall's Point became an important road leading to the
Dam and to Boston across the bay. The bend in the Harvard road became a
crossroads, and rated a corner grocery store. And around Coolidge Brothers
grocery a few houses arose—not many, for, even in Civil War days, this was way
out in the country. In 1894, one of the old-time Boston grocery
establishments, S. S. Pierce, bought out Coolidge's country store, and in what
seemed a wild speculation, erected a fancy and elaborate branch store building
on speculation, erected a fancy and elaborate branch store building on
"Coolidge's Corner." It took over ten years to bring any sort of returns,
but, as people moved into the Beacon Street part of Brookline, the Corner
grew. By 1907, there were all of five stores in the vicinity—and people still
coming in. New migrations in that direction made the vicinity still more
important; new transportation improvements helped out, starting with the first
subway opening in 1897, down to 1934, when the construction of Kenmore Station
brought the subway to the Brookline line. (The old farm trail has advanced a
long way). And "13 minutes to Park Street" is something. The former desolate
spot has now become the most important neighborhood center in Brookline. "The
stone which the builders rejected has become the headstone of the Corner."

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Meridian Street in
East Boston is built on a north-and-South line once supposed to be the line of
the 71st meridian west of Greenwich, though actually missing the real meridian
by about two miles. It is the only street in East Boston running due north and
south all the way, and would be entitled to its name on that ground alone. The
real 71st meridian comes very close to Suffolk Downs.

*

Anyone remember the
old days when station names were painted in immense letters on the subway walls
of the Tremont Street Subway and East Boston Tunnel—instead of the tiny black
and white name-plates now use at these stations?